Expectations
by Kharma
Summary: Rose has expectations. What happens when they're not met?


Title: Expectations

Author: Kharma2815 (Emma)

Fandom: Doctor Who

Pairing: Rose/Doctor

Rating: Older teenagers and up

Disclaimer: Rose, the Doctor and all related merchandise belong to the BBC (believe me, if they belonged to me, Mickey would be long gone and there would be lots of little Time Lords running around). This is just for fun and because my muse came back today with a vengeance.

Summary: Rose expects something to happen. What happens when it doesn't? (I suck at summarys).

Feddback: Absolutely. My first Doctor Who fic so be gentle.

Rose followed the muffled sounds of clanging and cursing and finally found who she was looking for laying in a hole in the floor of TARDIS control room. She listened for a few moments and the thought that she was certainly improving her vocabulary if nothing else made her smile slightly for a moment and then she remembered why she had been looking for him in the first place.

"Doctor?" she called quietly and tried again when she didn't get an answer. "DOCTOR?"

A resounding clang and a particularly strident curse was her only answer for a moment and then he crawled out of hole, rubbing his head and gazing at her reproachfully. Rose smiled apologetically at him and he couldn't help smiling. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't stay mad at her. "Yes?" he asked.

Rose fiddled with the hem of her t-shirt. "How long have I been here?" she asked.

The Doctor didn't even need to think. "1492.6 hours," he replied instantly.

Rose did some quick mental arithmetic. "That's about 60 days, right?"

The Doctor nodded and Rose sighed. "Damn," she muttered under her breath and turned to walk away.

"Rose?" the Doctor called after her and she turned to face him. "Is everything okay?" he asked quietly.

Rose bit her lip and glanced away before answering him. "Everything's fine," she said. "I was just expecting something to happen and it hasn't, that's all. Nothing to worry about."

The Doctor knew she was lying to him but he also knew that she wouldn't tell him what was bothering her until she wanted to. "You sure?" he asked and she smiled reassuringly.

"Stop worrying," she scolded him and gestured in the direction of the bedroom she had appropriated for her own. "I'm going to take a shower and then have a nap. I'm a little tired."

"Sleep well, Rose," the Doctor said quietly. Rose just smiled and walked away, leaving the Doctor to his constant tinkering with the TARDIS systems.

He was lost in thought for a moment, wondering what on Earth (or off it, as the case may be) that Rose would be expecting and then went back to work with a mental shrug. It was about 20 minutes later when the spanner he was using slipped and he skinned his knuckles.

"Son of a …" he started and then stopped as a thought suddenly occurred to him. "Son?" he mused to himself and then shook his head. "Don't be ridiculous," he told himself but he couldn't stop his mind from making the connection and he smiled. Rose was pregnant. It all fit. There was the sudden unexplained tiredness, the change in her eating habits (just the other day he had caught her eating Aldefreyan ice-cream, something he had never been able to stand) and the fact that she was expecting something that hadn't happened.

He sat in the hole in the floor, one knee drawn up to his chest with his elbow resting on it and thought for a moment. A smile crossed his face when an image flashed in his mind. A little girl with sparkling blue eyes, blonde pigtails and a mischievous smile who would follow him everywhere and hang on his every word and a little boy with brown eyes who he could teach about the universe and who everyone would say looked just like his Daddy.

"Only they won't be saying it about you, will they?" he said out loud with a frown. "They'll be saying it about Mickey the idiot. And it won't be you that the little girl looks to as the most important person in her world, it'll be him. Mickey. The father of Rose's child."

He suddenly came to a decision that he didn't even know he was thinking about and shook her head. "Once I've got this working again, I'll take her home. She needs to be with her mother and boyfriend for this, not a 900 year old alien who doesn't do domestic. It's for the best," he told himself firmly and went back to work, refusing to listen to the little voice in his head that told him not to let her go without a fight.

About 30 minutes later, he climbed out of the hole, wiped his hands on a piece of rag and closed the access hatch with a clang. Without giving himself time to think, he strode down the hall to Rose's room and knocked on the door. When he didn't get an answer, he slowly opened it and peeked inside, not wanting to wake her if she was sleeping but needing to check that she was okay.

When he saw her just sitting on the side of the bed and staring into space he sighed and walked into the room, shutting the door behind him. He sat on the bed next to her and spoke quietly without looking at her. "I'm taking you home," he said firmly.

"That's what you think," Rose replied, just as firmly and without looking up from her inspection of the floor. "I told you after the Slitheen that you're stuck with me and I meant it. I'm not going anywhere."

The Doctor sighed in exasperation. "Rose," he tried reasonably. "Someone in your condition needs to be at home with her family and her boyfriend. It's not safe for you to be running all over the galaxy with me, especially not now."

She finally turned to face him. "Why especially not now?" she asked and the Doctor turned to look at her.

"I know, Rose," he said quietly.

"You know," she echoed and he nodded. "Know what, exactly?"

He reached over and laid his hand flat on her stomach, ignoring the almost physical bolt of electricity that shot through him when his hand touched the skin bared by her t-shirt. "I know about the baby."

Rose was determined that the heat radiating from the hand on her stomach and the tiny pattern that his thumb was tracing on her skin, seemingly without his being consciously aware of it, was not going to affect her and she was quite proud of herself when she spoke without a trace of a tremor. "What baby?" she asked.

The Doctor's gaze shot up from where his hand still rested on her stomach and met her slightly amused but mostly confused eyes. "You're not pregnant?" he asked and she shook her head. He snatched his hand away guiltily and almost fell off the bed, only catching himself at the last moment.

He got up and started pacing the room, leaving Rose on the bed still watching him. "You know," she said conversationally. "I'm not sure whether or not to be insulted."

He hurried across the room and took her hands in his. "Oh no, Rose," he said. "Don't be insulted. You would be a fantastic mother."

"I would?" she asked, absurdly pleased by the idea and he nodded.

"Absolutely," he assured her. "You're patient and loving and kind. Any child would be honoured to have you as their mother."

Rose suddenly grinned. "You're right," she said. "After all, I manage to keep you out of too much trouble, don't I?" she asked.

"Hey!" the Doctor said indignantly and Rose giggled.

"So what made you think I was pregnant anyway?" she asked and he blushed slightly.

"Oh, er, it was a couple of things," he said as he rubbed at his ear, an action that Rose had quickly discovered meant he wasn't comfortable with the conversation but she wasn't going to let it drop.

"Like what?" she persisted in asking and he sighed.

"For a start, you're tired all the time," he began but Rose interrupted him.

"I'm tired all the time because I've spent the last 2 months, being chased halfway across the galaxy and back by various monsters and now that nothings happening, my body has decided it's time to catch up on some missed sleep," she explained. "Anything else?"

"There's the Aldefreyan ice cream."

Rose frowned. "What about it?"

"You were eating it!" the Doctor exclaimed in disgust.

Rose shrugged. "I like the taste. It tastes like Marmite." She ignored the look of revulsion on the Doctor's face at the mention of Marmite and carried on. "There has to be more to it than that."

He sighed. "Earlier, you said you were waiting for something to happen that hadn't and I guess I jumped to the wrong conclusion."

Rose looked at him for a moment, confused and then realised what he thought she had been talking about. "Doctor!" she exclaimed and then grinned. "Do you often think about my menstrual cycle?"

"Rose!" he exclaimed and she giggled. He leant back against the pillows piled on her bed and she curled up next to him. "So, are we okay?" he asked and she looked up at him with a smile.

"We're fine," she said and couldn't resist leaning up slightly to kiss his cheek. At least, that was where she aimed for but the Doctor moved at the last second and her lips brushed his.

A shiver went through them both at the feel of his lips against her own and she pulled back to look down at him. The Doctor raised a hand and touched her cheek. "You're trembling," he said softly.

Rose turned her head and kissed the palm of his hand. "So are you," she said and he closed his eyes momentarily.

"This is a bad idea, Rose," he said. "What about Mickey?"

Rose smiled. "Mickey who?" she asked and brushed a kiss against his jaw, revelling in the resultant shudder of his entire body.

He suddenly surged up and flipped them both over so he had the dominant position. "Be very sure about this, Rose," he told her. "Because I'll never be able to let you leave after this."

She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down against her. "I'm sure," she whispered. The look in his eyes made her gasp and he took advantage of the moment by leaning down and kissing her.

When they came up for air, they were both flushed and panting. "Wow!" Rose exclaimed. "Any more where that came from?"

The Doctor looked down at her and grinned. "Lot's more," he declared and showed her just how much more.

After, laying flushed and sated in Rose's bed, the Doctor looked down at his young companion and smiled. "Rose?" he said softly as he gently ran his fingers through her hair. "When you said you were waiting for something to happen that didn't, what did you mean?"

Rose kissed the bare expanse of chest where her head was currently resting and he could feel the smile on her lips. "It doesn't matter now," she said drowsily. "It just happened."

It took the Doctor a few minutes to figure out what she meant, and then he smiled. He was still smiling when he fell asleep a few minutes later, his love held securely in his arms.

The End


End file.
